Microbe Talk

In a special, end-of-the-year podcast, Ben went to do some outside recording at the Wix School in Clapham, London, where he learnt about 'Native Scientist' an outreach project that goes into schools to give children a chance to learn about science research in their native language. The project was co-founded by Dr Joana Moscoso, the Society for General Microbiology's Outreach Prize winner. We spoke to her about the project, and asked a teacher at Wix what he thought the benefits of the project are.

New York's Central Park is huge. This iconic rectangle of greenery, 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide, receives 40 million human visitors annually and is home to hundreds of species of species of animals and insects, and over 25,000 trees. But what of the world beneath the soil? How many microbes are living beneath the different environments found in the park?

A recent paper, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, has investigated the below-ground microbial diversity in Central Park. We spoke Dr Kelly Ramirez, the study's lead author, who is currently working as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology. Kelly told us how she went about searching for microbes in the park, and how many previously new species were uncovered.

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You might not know it, but there are very likely to be microscopic mites living on your face. Right now. They're microscopic, so you won’t see them if you look in the mirror. For most of us, these mites are totally harmless and just live off the natural oils produced by our skin. However, these mites have also been implicated in the skin condition rosacea, which potentially affects as many as 1 in 10 people. We spoke to Fred McMahon, a PhD student at Maynooth University, about the mites and how the bacteria within them may be at the root of rosacea.

Image credit: Karl Udo on Wikimedia Commons, via Free Art License 1.3

The Reverend Dr William H Dallinger, is probably not a name you're familiar with. However, he was an important figure in the history of early microbiology. We sent Ben to the Royal Society, to learn more about Dallinger's life. Also this month, Ben spoke to Dr Jeanne Salje about her work on Scrub Typhus, a disease that is widespread in Southeast Asia.

Image Credit: Wellcome Images under CC BY 4.0

Dr Bryn Dentiger, a researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, bought a packet of dried porcini mushrooms at a local shop. Being an expert in fungi, Bryn wanted to know what species of porcini he had purchased, so he sequenced the DNA of the dried mushrooms (obviously) and was rather surprised at the result. Ben went to Kew to talk to Bryn about fungi and about his discovery...

Also on the podcast this month, we interviewed Artemis Louyakis, who studies Thromolites: tough rock-like structures, which are actually macrocolonies of bacteria. Artemis tells us about her research and the practical use that these structure might have in space travel.

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This month on the Podcast, we sent Ben to Keble College, University of Oxford, to attend a conference that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first paper to detail the Epstein–Barr virus. The virus, also known as EBV, was the first virus shown to cause cancer in humans.On the podcast this month:Sir Anthony Epstein, who was one of the co-discoverers of EBV and published the first paper on the virus, in the 'Lancet' in 1964.Professor Paul Farrell (Imperial College London), who was an author on the first paper that detailed the genetic sequence of EBV.Professor Jeffrey Cohen (US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), who is working to develop a vaccine against the virus.Image Credit: David Iliff under CC-BY-SA

A few weeks ago, the Society had its Annual Conference in Liverpool. We spoke to a few of the researchers that were presenting at the event and asked them about their work.

On the podcast this month:

Professor W. Ian Lipkin, talking about pandemics and Hollywood movies.

Dr Laura Clarke, talking about bacteria that do strange things to nematodes.

Professor Marvin Whiteley, talking about polymicrobial infections.

Dr Roger Sanders, talking about the chances of developing an HIV vaccine.

Dr Rita Colwell, talking about the challenges facing early-career women scientists.

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This month on the podcast, Ben interviews Dr Dan Zeigler about this work on Geobacillus. These microbes prefer to grow at hot temperatures, yet have been isolated at the bottom of the ocean and on the top of mountains. Ben asked Dan about the role these bacteria play in the global ecosystem and about his recent paper 'The Geobacillus paradox: why is a thermophilic bacterial genus so prevalent on a mesophilic planet?'.

Image credit: Bolivian Andes via Thinkstock

This month, we spoke to Dr Lee Stanish, a research associate from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Lee is using crowdfunding – an internet-based donation system – to fund her latest project, which will investigate whether microbes can be used to trace methane contamination from natural gas 'fracking' in well water.

We talked to Lee about the project, her experiences with crowdfunding and her thoughts on its future as a funding stream.

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This month, Benjamin interviews Dr Jamie Stark, a Research Fellow in the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds.Jamie is an expert on the history of anthrax, a lethal disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. He has extensively researched the appearance (and social role) of anthrax in the UK town of Bradford in the late 19th century.Jamie has a new book out on the subject, entitled The Making of Modern Anthrax. We discuss this, and the subject at large, in this in-depth podcast.Image: Bradford Cathedral via Thinkstock